Complete DHS Daily Report for August 29, 2013
Daily Report
Top Stories
• A section of southbound Interstate 81 in
Montgomery County, Virginia, could be closed for up to 10 days after a
scheduled blast caused a crack in an unstable slope near the highway to grow. –
Roanoke Times
6.
August 28, Roanoke Times – (Virginia) Unstable
slope could close I-81 south in Montgomery Co. for several days. A section
of southbound Interstate 81 in Montgomery County, Virginia, was closed August
27 and could be closed for up to 10 days after a scheduled blast caused a crack
in an unstable slope near the highway to grow to about 120 feet in length.
Source: http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/2183185-12/unstable-slope-could-close-i-81-south-in-montgomery.html\
• Firefighters reached 23 percent containment
of California’s Rim Fire August 28 as it burned 187,466 acres. – Los Angeles
Times
15.
August 28, Los Angeles Times –
(California) Containment of Yosemite fire now 23% as blaze climbs record
books. Firefighters reached 23 percent containment of California’s Rim Fire
as it burned 187,466 acres August 28. More evacuations orders were announced
for residents in the fire’s path after the blaze destroyed 111 buildings,
including 31 homes. Source: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-rim-fire-wednesday-20130828,0,248400.story
• Hacktivists caused disruptions and redirects
on Web sites belonging to the New York Times, the Huffington Post, and Twitter
after they breached a domain registration and hosting company and modified the
sites’ DNS records. – Softpedia
See item 22
below in the Information Technology
Sector
• A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty to
installing backdoors on several government, university, telecoms, and
commercial systems and offering access to them in exchange for payment. – Softpedia
See
item 23 below in the Information Technology Sector
Details
Banking and Finance Sector
2. August
27, Reuters – (International) JPMorgan’s former ‘London Whale’ supervisor
arrested in Spain. A former JP Morgan Chase trader was arrested in Spain
and faces extradition to the U.S. for allegedly trying to inflate the value of
trading positions during a $6.2 billion financial scandal. Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/27/us-jpmorgan-whale-idUSBRE97Q0D620130827
3. August
27, IDG News Service – (International) Cybercrime service automates creation of fake
scanned IDs, other identity verification documents. Researchers at Group-IB
identified a new Web-based cybercrime service that automates the creation of
various forms of fake identification including passports, banking statements,
and utility bills. Source: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/082713-cybercrime-service-automates-creation-of-273262.html
4. August
27, CNN (Nevada) Las Vegas Sands resolves laundering cases with $47
million deal. The U.S. Department of Justice and casino operator Las Vegas
Sands agreed to a $47 million settlement in an non-prosecution agreement for
the casino to avoid charges over its failure to report suspicious money wiring
transactions by an alleged drug kingpin. Source: http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/27/news/companies/las-vegas-sands/index.html
5. August
26, Bloomberg News – (New York) Three charged with stealing Flow Traders trading
software. Two former Flow Traders employees and one other individual were
charged with allegedly stealing the firm’s electronic trading software and
using it to create their own trading company. Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-26/three-charged-with-stealing-flow-traders-trading-software.html
Information Technology Sector
22. August
28, Softpedia – (International) Syrian Electronic Army hacks Australian
internet company, NYT and Twitter disrupted. Members of the Syrian Electronic
Army hacktivist group caused disruptions and redirects on Web sites belonging
to the New York Times, the Huffington Post, and Twitter August 27 after they
breached Australian domain registration and hosting company Melbourne IT and
modified the sites’ DNS records. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Syrian-Electronic-Army-Hacks-Australian-Internet-Company-NYT-and-Twitter-Disrupted-378637.shtml
23. August
28, Softpedia – (International) Hacker admits to selling access to U.S.
Energy Department computers. A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty to
installing backdoors on several government, university, telecoms, and
commercial systems and offering access to them in exchange for payment. Among
others, the man offered undercover agents access to U.S. Department of Energy
supercomputers that he had compromised via universities that had access to
them. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Hacker-Admits-Selling-Access-to-US-Energy-Department-Computers-378659.shtml
24. August
28, Softpedia – (International) Cloud hosting company DigitalOcean hit by
DDoS attack. Cloud hosting service provider DigitalOcean announced that it
was the target of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack August 28 that
disrupted the company’s Web site and control panel. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Cloud-Hosting-Company-DigitalOcean-Hit-by-DDOS-Attack-378713.shtml
Communications Sector
25. August
28, The Register – (International) Eggheads turn Motorola feature phone into
CITYWIDE GSM jammer. Research presenting at the 22nd USENIX Security
Symposium showed how an attacker could take advantage of a vulnerability in the
GSM communications protocol to deny service to a network or individual user by
using a phone to masquerade as another handset and prevent the original from
establishing an authenticated connection. Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/28/german_boffins_mod_moto_into_citywide_gsm_jammer/
26. August
27, WRAL 5 Raleigh – (North Carolina) Severed cable affecting Robbins 911 service
repaired. A CenturyLink fiber-optic cable along North Carolina highway 24/27
was cut August 27, causing a telephone service outage which affected phone and
9-1-1 services for several hours before being repaired. Source: http://www.wral.com/severed-cable-affecting-robbins-911-service-repaired/12822445/
For another story, see item 23 above in the Information Technology Sector